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‘Souvenir’

The Bradley Playhouse will present “Souvenir” starting Feb. 10. Pictured are Preston Arnold as Cosme McMoon and Diane Pollard as Florence Foster Jenkins.  Photo courtesy of Christopher Atwood.

 

 

Bradley presents

'Souvenir'

PUTNAM — The Theatre of Northeastern Connecticut at the Bradley Playhouse will present  Stephen Temperley’s “Souvenir.” 

It runs at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10, 11, 17 and 18 and at 2 p.m. Feb. 12 and 19.  Tickets are $20 for adults and $16 for seniors and students. Call 860-928-7887.

The TNECT production of Souvenir is co-directed by Kathleen Atwood and Scott A. Guerin.  Florence Foster Jenkins is masterfully played by Diane Pollard (be aware, you have to be able to sing really well to imitate someone who is incapable of producing two consecutive notes in tune).  Preston Arnold appears as the long-suffering accompanist, Cosme McMoon.

The name Florence Foster Jenkins has been guaranteed to produce derisive laughter. In the 1930s and 1940s, this wealthy society eccentric suffered under the delusion that she was a great coloratura soprano when nothing could be farther from the truth. 

The climax of her career was a single concert at Carnegie Hall in 1944. Famously, it sold out in two hours. Souvenir, by turn hilarious and poignant, tells her story through the eyes of her accompanist, Cosme McMoon. A talented musician, he regards her at first as little more than an easy way to pay the rent, but, as he gets to know her, his initial contempt gives way to reluctant admiration, then friendship and affection.  Faced with Florence’s certainty of her ability, Cosme comes to revise his attitude, not only towards her singing but to the very meaning of music itself.  As the play ends the audience enters her world completely, finding there the beauty she’d heard in her head all along. As Florence Foster Jenkins famously said “People may say I can’t sing, but no one can ever say I didn’t sing.”